A NEW VOLKSWAGEN POLO GTI R5 RALLY CAR IS SET TO MAKE ITS DEBUT IN LATE 2018 WITH CUSTOMER TEAMS
Ahead of the final round of the 2017 WRC, VW has teased the Polo GTI R5. A sketch of the new rally car, based on the forthcoming sixth generation Polo GTI, previews what we can expect when the car arrives in the second half of 2018. VW hasn’t entered a factory team to run the car in the 2018 WRC, but will be supplying the R5 to customer teams competing in various rally championships.
The R5’s turbocharged four-cylinder engine – displacing 2 litres in the new Polo GTI – will provide common-ground for the road-going Polo GTI and R5, although in the latter it will drive through a sequential five-speed transmission, distributing 266bhp to all four corners.
The R5 project was initialised at the beginning of the year calling on the substantial expertise of Francois-Xavier Demaison, VW Motorsport technical director, and Gerard-Jan de Jongh, the senior project engineer. Demaison piloted development efforts on the four-time WRC winning Polo R and remains in that role. While Jongh, a race-engineer by trade, was ever-present during Sebastien Ogier’s four-year monopoly on the WRC Drivers’ title at the wheel of the Polo R.
Speaking about the R5, Volkswagen Motorsport Director, Sven Smeets said “With the Polo GTI R5 we are hoping to transfer our expertise from four WRC titles to customer racing successfully, and offer a first-class racing machine for countless rally championships from national series to the WRC. Before the first race outing next year, we will subject the Polo GTI R5 to rigorous testing to make sure it is prepared for the extremely varied track conditions around the world.”
While the sketch may take some artistic liberties, we anticipate the real thing to look very similar. The R5 has an obvious semblance of the new Polo GTI, but the stretched bodywork, in particular the flared arches deliver a much wider, more squat stance – as you’d expect of any rally car. The red pin-striped, token GTI grille sandwiched between the headlights has been carried across from the production model. Below this sit air intakes in place of fog lights, along with the new air dam which is absent from the road car.
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